The company has been machining very large components ever since it was founded almost 60 years ago. Nowadays, more than 10,000 tonnes of steel are machined in the Danish municipality of Barrit each year – and the numbers keep going up, since the components required for new offshore wind turbines are only getting bigger and bigger. This also had consequences for the five vertical turning and boring mills, which had their maximum turning diameter expanded to 7,500 mm by Albrechtsen back in 2015. “We modified our machines again to satisfy the demand from one of our customers,” explains the managing director. “This led to the housing around the machine being modified and the tool changers being converted, so that we now have a maximum turning diameter on flanges of 9,000 mm.”

But is this still sufficient for the latest direct drive wind power plants with outputs of up to 16 MW? The components in demand are namely rotor housings with a diameter of 9,000 or 10,000 mm; however, even larger components with a diameter of 11,500 mm are under discussion. Consequently, businesses who are looking to keep pace with the wind power industry in the long term need to start thinking about “supersizing” – not least due to growing competition from China in this area. In addition, suppliers increasingly do not just have to process new high-strength steels, aluminium alloys and castings, but also a steadily increasing proportion of composite materials.

Henning Albrechtsen, HACO-managing director

The multi-year customer contract with a renowned manufacturer of offshore wind power plants now required a rethink. HACO and Valmont consequently decided on a more sustainable form of collaboration. The family-run company from Jutland is therefore establishing a subsidiary plant for the two portal machines near Valmont’s headquarters in Rødekro, where the gigantic components for their shared customer can be manufactured without the aforementioned usual transport of heavy goods over land. Rødekro’s proximity to the sea is also a point in its favour. “From here, even gigantic, extremely heavy rotor housings can be transported via ship in an environmentally friendly manner for assembly at the manufacturer of the offshore wind power plants, whose plant is also located near to the coast,” explains Erz, who is supervising the project for Starrag. “This way, we avoid having to use many additional kilometres of heavy goods transports, which would not only obstruct road traffic, but also contribute to environmental pollution.”